What can I say about the new Dutch prog rock band
Leap Day? They
made a perfect debut album for which only one word will do: bravo! Well, to be
honest it was not a big surprise that a number of musicians from well-known
Dutch bands would record together an excellent album like
Awaking The Muse.
Last year November, drummer KoenRozen (Flamborough
Head)
gave me a demo with three tracks from that album. After listening, I knew that
we could expect something special this year.

During a performance of King Eider
on Progfarm 2007, it
became clear that the interplay between the musicians could easily lead to
another band or project and so it did. Guitarist
Hans Gerritse (Nice Beaver)
who had originally been asked to join the band had to cancel,
because the distance between his residence and the location to rehearse was too
large. Therefore, Eddie Mulder
(Pink Floyd Project, ex-Flamborough
Head) replaced him. They chose Leap Day as a band name, because their first
rehearsal took place on February 29. Many rehearsals and a few live
performances made them a solid sounding progressive rock band that managed to
write fine material for Awakening The Muse.

The album opens strong with When Leaves Fall.
Bassist Peter Stel (Nice Beaver) has a
leading role in this fine piece. Nor Chris Squire
(Yes) or Mark
King (Level 42)
could have done it better. Unfortunately, his
bass guitar does sound differently on the other tracks. Itís no surprise that guitarist
Eddie Mulder has a leading role throughout the album with his fantastic and
melodic guitar play. Itís always a pleasure to hear him play in the vein of
Andy Latimer (Camel) or
David Gilmour (Pink
Floyd) in
combination with the keyboards. The two keyboardists play great solos and
stunning chords. I already knew that
Derk Evert Waalkens is a superb player as we can hear on
the excellent King Eider-album Somateria Spectabilis.
The second keyboardist Gert van Engelenburg
certainly is a revelation. Heís not only a fine musician, but he has
a great talent for writing outstanding neo-progressive rock as well. His input
on Awaking The Muse is
substantial and he therefore is responsible for an important part of the
overall sound of the band.

Leap Day is the excellent
result of a perfect cooperation between six musicians. This means that lead
singer Jos Harteveld
(The Pink Floyd Project)
is also part of that success. Some
people considered him to be the weakest link in the band. Well,
everybody is entitled to have his own opinion, but I think theyíre wrong. Jos
Harteveld is a great vocalist who also plays acoustic guitar when needed. Whether
you like someoneís voice or not is a matter of taste. Many people discuss the
vocal abilities of David Gilmour, Nick Barrett,
Peter Nicholls or even
Mick Jagger. Still they sell
enough albums to make a living. However, this is not the case with Leap Day.
For them making prog rock music is most of all a hobby that makes many people
happy including me. It is good to see that another new prog rock band from The
Netherlands has been born with such a professional debut album after we already
had fine releases of other Dutch bands like Mangrove,
Knight Area,
Silhouette, Flamborough Head
and Kayak. As I stated before: bravo!